Flip the Coin
by theroguesgambit
Summary: Imagine if their positions were reversed; if one day Merlin woke up as Prince of Camelot, while Arthur is believed to be a servant. Meanwhile, Arthur realizes he possesses magic, while Merlin's is gone. Can the two deal with living each others' lives?


A/N: It started out as a picture. Well... it started out as a concept I thought I'd be too lazy to write, so I just made a picture instead. And now here I am, writing it anyway. I just couldn't resist. Here's the link to the picture, if you'd like to take a look (just take out the spaces around the word 'deviantart'. It doesn't let me post the link without them there:

dragonslostchild. deviantart .com/art/Prince-Merlin-and-his-Servant-167584216?q=&qo=

.-.

**Flip the Coin**  
_Prologue_

_He had a very strange dream that night. That was nothing unusual in and of itself – in his opinion, "dreams" and "nonsense" went together like magic and malice, or so the saying went. The only problem, in fact, was that today the nonsense didn't end when he woke up._

_The dream started off badly enough – he arrived in one of the courtyards for morning training and found Morgana there, dressed in chain mail and handing out hairbrushes._

_"Good grooming," she was in the midst of explaining, "is at least as important to any victory as this sword fighting nonsense. People will respect you if you look as if you respect yourself. After all, you don't think Alexander conquered the known world with bad hair, do you?"_

_"Morgana!" He moved forward, properly horrified at the sight of his knights dropping their blades to the dirt and combing each others' tresses instead. "What do you think you're doing? Got bored roaming around the castle like an old crone so you've decided to bother my men instead?"_

_The woman turned her attention to him with a lazy smile._

_"Your father gave me permission. Your training regime has been quite a disappointment to him, it seems, so he decided to give me a go."_

_The jibe hurt, but he didn't show it._

_"What, with hairbrushes?"_

_She arched a disdainful brow._

_"Don't pout, big brother. It doesn't suit you. Now, first things first: go have a bath before you join us. You stink like a peasant."_

_He opened his mouth, closed it, and looked to his knights for help. He did not find any._

_"She made me bathe three times," Sir Leon intoned, trimming thoughtfully at his beard._

_He retreated from the courtyard, making his way in quick, determined steps toward the throne room. Surely, this was all some sort of trick. His father had never been much in the way of a practical joker, but this…_

_The guards were not at their usual posts beside the doors, so he pushed them open himself, storming in._

_"Father, I-" And he froze. At the head of the hall, where his father's throne usually sat, there were now two chairs. The king's seat was empty, but in the one beside it sat a beautiful, noble lady in a rich green gown, with her neck and ears adorned with the finest of jewelry. Her posture was straight, her head held high, her stance proud. By all accounts, looking the part of a queen. He was stunned._

_"…Guinevere?" She turned her gaze to him slowly, as if only now beginning to notice his presence. A smile touched her lips and he blinked quickly, surprised at the way his heart fluttered at the attention._

_"I was looking for my… I mean…" he stammered, trailed off, and tried again. "…the king?"_

_"My husband?" Guinevere questioned, as though clarifying a very obvious point._

_Her… He felt his heart flutter again._

_"Your…" Footsteps behind him. He trailed off, nonplussed._

_"Well, you're in luck." Guinevere smiled again, standing, but now that smile was directed somewhere off behind him. "He just arrived."_

_A figure swept past him, moving toward Guinevere – dark hair under a golden crown. He reached her, red cape billowing to a stop behind him as he reached out to take her hand and kiss it._

_"My Lady."_

_She was beaming. The love in her eyes was bright enough to light the castle a dozen times over._

_"My Lord." They leaned in for a soft and lingering kiss, before Queen Guinevere pulled back with a sigh and a dismissive wave toward the door where he stood, gaping. "Oh… by the way, a servant has come to see you."_

_The king turned, and for the first time Arthur could glimpse his face._

_"Merlin?"_

"Arthur!"

He woke up at the sudden shout… or at least thought he did. It took him less than a heartbeat to realize that he wasn't where he should be. The rough, scratchy fabric and the lumpy surface certainly did not belong to his own bed. He blinked lazily into the white pillow – or was it a pillow? Was he out on a hunting trip, sleeping in the dirt with his head on a rock?

"_Arthur_. Wake up, lazybones."

Wait, but that was…

Arthur turned his head out of the pillow and came face to face with Gaius, smiling fondly down at him.

"What, am I sick?" He frowned around him, blinking drowsiness from his vision, and found himself lying in a small, cluttered chamber he only vaguely recognized. He'd been there once or twice before, and even then for only a few moments each… but there was no forgetting that fantastic mess. This was his servant, Merlin's bedchamber.

He must have been very bad off, indeed, if Gaius hadn't even thought it safe to move him to his own room. But he felt fine now, and – rolling his shoulders experimentally – he didn't feel even the barest twinge of injury.

Meanwhile, Gaius had begun speaking again.

"However much you'd like to play sick today, Arthur, you'd best get up and get going, quickly. You know Merlin can hardly function without you."

Arthur laughed softly, pushing himself carefully up into a sitting position. Good God, was he dressed in his servant's clothes as well? The sheer coarseness of the fabric… it was a wonder half the city wasn't always running around in a fit of hives.

"Oh, I think Merlin can manage getting on with his chores for one morning without me."

His own clothes must have been badly bloodied or torn for them to have bothered changing him into one of Merlin's precious few outfits, but he bore no injuries that he could detect. Why couldn't he remember what had happened to him? He reached up to feel around his head tentatively, but felt no tender lump or bruise that could signal memory loss. And yet Gaius volunteered no explanation to any of this, as though expecting Merlin to know exactly what was going on.

"Have I been bumped in the head?" For some reason, Gaius began to laugh.

"Sometimes I do wonder that myself, my boy. Now, if you've quite run out of excuses, I suggest that you get dressed and get off to the castle. I have to go – Uther requested my presence not long ago."

To say that Arthur was shocked by his physician's behavior would have been a gross understatement. True, Gaius had known him since he was a baby, and therefore had some leverage when speaking to him, but there was still a certain level of respect a servant was expected to show while speaking to one of his betters.

And he still hadn't given the vaguest explanation as to why Arthur had woken up in his servant's bedroom.

So busy was he trying to puzzle out the situation – _should_ he know what was going on? Had he been given some poison or potion that had inadvertently made him forget? – that he barely noticed Gaius's startled expression when he absently voiced "Alright, give him by regards then…"

Gaius paused, nodded somewhat hesitantly, and murmured a skeptical "Alright Arthur," before departing. He sat on the lumpy bed for another minute or so, puzzling, until the sound of the main door swinging shut shook him from his own thoughts. Then, looking around the room and finding nothing of his own in evidence, he raised his voice in a harsh shout to no one, asking,

"Wait! Get dressed in _what_?"

.-.

TBC

Please review!


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